When the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010 ruled that juveniles can’t be sentenced to life without parole for non-homicide offenses, it meant that those who commit crimes when they are young must be given a reasonable chance to someday live outside prison walls, the West Palm Beach court wrote. The nation’s high court ruled juveniles must be given special consideration because their brains aren’t fully developed, they don’t always fully understand the consequences of their actions and they are amendable to rehabilitation.

The 70-year sentence Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Charles Burton handed Cunningham in 2014, after the high court ruling, doesn’t provide Cunningham, now 27, the opportunity to prove he has been rehabilitated and should be allowed to live outside prison walls.

In its decision, it noted that the Florida Supreme Court in 2015 threw out 90-year and 70-year sentences for juveniles convicted of non-homicide crimes. The lengthy sentences, the appeals court wrote, “did not provide the defendant with a meaningful opportunity for early release based upon maturity and rehabilitation.”